9 comments:

According to their online inventory only the Women's 15" in Green. Store inventory may be different. I looked at purchasing one of these but they could not find one in any frame size over a medium...welcome to the one size fits all world.

I bought one of the 2008s this weekend at the Framingham, Mass. store. It was down to $499 (as of Mar. 1, 2009).

While this is not the ideal commuter bike in my mind, it is pretty damn close. And when you can get close to ideal for less than $500, it seems like an obvious choice.

In my ideal world, this bike would have a chromoly frame with a curved chromoly fork and 26 in. (ISO 559) wheels. Otherwise, it's ideally outfitted.

I have a lot of experience with Shimano roller brakes and have had at least three bikes that use them (It's hard to count, as various sets of wheels have been mounted to various fames over the years). While roller brakes have one (arguably large) drawback, their good points are numerous. The drawback is the weight. Otherwise, they offer: great all-weather braking, absolutely minimal upkeep, no parts to wear out (if you grease them once per year), and best protection from brake theft of any type of brake.

I looked at the 2009 Fusion. While it's clearly a good deal more stylish, I'm not sold on the combination of internal gears and disk brakes. The disk brake requires a vertical dropout, whereas the internal gear hub is ideally used with horizontal dropouts. The only solution is to use a chain tensioner, which, in my mind, introduces a weak mechanical link and hurts the aesthetics as well. For a commuter, I'm happy with roller brakes, and am prepared to pay the weight penalty.

About the LP-M300 shimano dual lamp, i've got one and like to know if the spokes need to be changed to install the DH-2N30-E SHIMANO Hub Dynamo 6V-- 2.4W. If change is required, what size spokes should I put for a normal 26" MTB wheel?